How to Design Professional Visuals For Your Fundraising Event

Planning and preparing for a fundraising event is a challenge. There are so many things to think about and so much to do. Let’s say that we have two organizations that have worked equally hard to plan a pancake breakfast for a school fundraiser. They have both put in the same amount of time, have promoted their events in the same way and same places, etc. The ONLY real difference between the two events is the graphics they used to promote their event on posters that they placed around town, the fliers they handed out, and the graphics they put on Instagram and Facebook.

Here are the two organizations’ posters (just to give you an idea of the differences):

ORGANIZAITON 1:

ORGANIZATION 2:

Would you be surprised if I said organization #2 had a much better turnout than organization #1?

I hope you wouldn’t be surprised!

Visuals and graphics are INCREDIBLY important to marketing and promoting your nonprofit fundraising events.

Today I want to share with you 3 design points for your fundraising visuals:

#1 Amount of Text

#2 Quality Pictures and Graphics

#3 Typography

#1 Amount of Text

Did you know that Google tries to keep less than 18 words on their homepage? Based on their research, people do not want a lot of words and buttons on their homepage because it is confusing and cluttered.

When designing visuals for a fundraising event, try to keep Google in mind. People get lost in a text heavy poster or flier. Instead of describing in detail your entire event, just tell them the key information that they need to remember.

To illustrate this, here are two pictures. Take 15 seconds to look at each picture and be sure to remember the KEY pieces (or what you assume are the key pieces).

PICTURE 1:

PICTURE 2:

Without looking back at the the pictures, see if you can answer a few questions.

Was there a dog figurine in room 1?

Was there a blanket in room 1?

How many mugs were in room 1?

ANSWERS:

Was there a dog figurine in room 1? Yes, it is at the bottom, center of the picture.

Was there a blanket in room 1? Yes, at the bottom left of the picture.

How many mugs were in room 1? I counted over 14.

Now think back to room 2.

Was there blanket in room 2?

What color was the table in room 2?

How many plants were in room 2?

ANSWERS:

Was there blanket in room 2? Yes.

What color was the table in room 2? White.

How many plants were in room 2? 2.

Did you know the answers better for room 2? I definitely did! There was way less to focus on in room 2, which made it easier to remember what was in it.

Likewise, an uncluttered poster or flier helps people focus on what you want them to focus on.

For instance, on a poster you’ll want to include:

Date

Time

Place

Cost (+how/when/where to pay)

Brief description of the event

Just remember to not overwhelm the viewer :).

#2 Quality of Your Visuals

There are two main types of visuals that you might use on your fundraising posters or social media posts: photographs and graphics.

Graphics include icons, clipart, cartoons, etc., while photographs are pictures taken of real people, places, and things.

Let’s talk about the QUALITY and CONSISTENCY of your graphics and photos.

Consistency

Secondly, especially for a fundraising event, you want to make sure that your visuals look and feel cohesive. They should all carry similar graphics/photos and be visually similar. Sometimes people don’t do this because they think it will bore their viewers or community to see the same style of poster on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and around town, but it won’t! It will show a consistent, well-planned theme, look and feel for your entire event.

Here is an example of consistency in visual for 2 promotion platforms:

Instagram

Poster

#3 Typography

The third design point I want to address is typography.

You don’t want to pair any fonts together, and you don’t want to use different points on all of your visuals.

Here are two examples from Canva to show you how they use different fonts.

You will typically use cursive and flowing fonts as a focus point on a formal invite. You wouldn’t, for example, use the bold “LET’S GLOW” font to announce your annual formal gala. Additionally, you will typically pair a thick font with a thin font.

If you don’t feel comfortable pairing fonts, use GOOGLE FONTS. They can help you pair fonts together.

Furthermore, use only 2-3 fonts across all of your fundraising visuals. This goes back to the having a consistent and cohesive look for your entire fundraising campaign. Using the same fonts will help all of your visuals look and feel the same.

Conclusion

Overall, the visuals that you use for a fundraising event will influence the success of your event. You might not even realize how much of a difference high quality visuals will make to the success of your event.